A considerable town

The incomparable M.F.K. Fisher, of whom Auden said, "I do not know of anyone in the United States today who writes better prose," evokes the Marseille she has known and loved for almost fifty years. What she has written, she protests, is not a guidebook; rather, it is an effort "to write something about the town itself, through my own senses." Nevertheless, it is hard to conceive of a guide more fascinating than M.F.K. Fisher as she shares all that she sees and knows and feels about the old port and quays, as she relishes the succulent fruits of the salty soil and the salty sea that embrace…